Greg Abbott - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 29 January 2010 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) and James Phillips (JP) on Friday evening before Carlisle's League One match at home to Leyton Orient tomorrow, Abbott first talking about the latest injury situation at Brunton Park after the dramatic 3-2 win at Exeter on Tuesday evening :



PN

Firstly, bring us up to date with how your squad is looking tonight, any injury concerns ahead of tomorrow's game?

GA

No, we are in good shape tomorrow, we are all ready in a determined mood and ready to go and try to carry on from the Tuesday night thing.

PN

And Paul Thirlwell of course back in the side on Tuesday night, no adverse effects to his 80 or 90 minutes?

GA

No, he came through alright. We are pleased with his reaction to his problems, he is fine, so he is contention tomorrow and we have just really got David Raven the only one now. Everybody, generally when you are doing OK they find their way onto the training field and that has been the case with us this week. So we have got a clean bill of health.

PN

What has the mood been like this week on the back of Tuesday's night win?

GA

Well, you talk about the journey, if we had come away with a 2-2 we would have had a long time to dwell on the fact that we should really have won the game. So the fact that we won the game and all the teams around us had lost as well so it threw us up to 11th, and everybody was buoyant on the bus.

It was a better journey home, it wasn't a great journey home whatever because it is such a long way. But it was a better journey home because the lads are looking at the table and psychologically it looks a lot better than it could have done, so they are in good shape.





PN

I imagine no-one on that bus was happier than Richard Offiong, for you personally how pleased were you that Richard got that goal and broke his duck?

GA

Well, obviously at the minute with all the comparisons with the Vincent (Pericard) situation and that, you are delighted that your strikers have produced. Certainly with Richard's case he was due a goal, it is one that we are hoping will lift his spirits and lift his confidence and he can move on from there and show people what a good player he can be. It is amazing how much better you look when you are playing full of confidence and you are playing without any fear.

JP

The more I watch his goal the more impressed I am with the composure he shows there. It would have been so easy for him just to blast that rebound wouldn't it? Was that a surprise even to you given the fact that he had struggled to find the back of the net?

GA

He hasn't really had a lot of great chances to be fair. It was a chance that fell to him, he was in the right place at the right time and he has finished it off well. When if he had blasted it, it could have gone way over the top.You have seen that happen at that ground down the hill there at the end. But he was calm, he has got in the right position and he has finished it off and we are really pleased with him.





JP

And Gary Madine also, obviously a split second before that, very unlucky not to score, and another composed effort on goal off the inside of the post. He also had quite an effect when he came on, how impressed have you been with him and what is his situation at the moment with two days and 20 hours or something like that left in the transfer window?

GA

Well his situation is the same as any other player at the club, there is still two days to go for them. He is a Carlisle player and he has come back and he has got a nice way about him at the minute. I think he has got an understanding of things he might have done wrong in the past and we have talked about that as honestly as we can with him.

We have given him as much good advice as we can with him, and at the minute he has taken that on board and he is fighting to make a name for himself in this game, which is what he has to do. We are pleased at the minute with the sort of progress and the way he is looking and hopefully he can go on to better things.

PN

Do you think he has taken on greater maturity since he spent that three months at Coventry?

GA

I think he is listening to the good advice now that people are giving him rather than maybe some of the not so good advice that he has been given. It is easy as a young player, a young man in football to be easily influenced and take on board the wrong sort of information.

But we have given him good information and by the looks of it the Coventry people have given him good information and advice. He has come back certainly with a different way about him and we are pleased to be working with him now and hopefully he can go on to better things.

JP

When he did go to Coventry you said that he perhaps wasn't quite where you wanted him to be in terms of the first team and he perhaps wanted to be there, and it was his chance going to Coventry. Has he come back the sort of player, has he improved in the way that maybe he is now perhaps closer to that first team slot?

GA

You know me better than that, we are talking about having Gary back for about a week, we have hardly done any training with him. He has had two bit parts in a game so I would be foolish to say he is the finished article right now. Gary is an improving young player with a lot of potential and that is what we are hoping will come out and will be realised over the future weeks and months.





PN

Two goals for Joe Anyinsah on Tuesday night, that is eight for the season now for Joe, that is not bad for someone who has spent most of his career out on the wing is it?

GA

Well, he has been out on the wing but he hasn't played a great deal of football in that position wherever he has been. We brought him in as a central striker and if you saw his performance at Stockport he was probably the one that was likely to break the deadlock. Tuesday in the first-half he was terrific and we think Joe has got absolutely loads to his game that we need to see more of.

If he can improve and use all the strengths and attributes he has got we think he is going to be a really, really good central striker, that is the only position we see him in. Yes we know he can do other positions and we are happy to use him there now and again, and that is the benefit of having that type of player at our type of club. But we see him first and foremost as a central striker and we think he is improving there.

PN

And longer term do you think Joe might benefit from having somebody to play alongside, like a targetman? Like a Vincent Pericard?

GA

He might do, we will find that out, that is a hindsight one isn't it. It is one that you don't know the answer just yet until it happens. We think Joe can play on his own, we think he could be just as effective with a two and we play different systems, we play different types of football all the time to try to get the right results.





PN

We should talk about the transfer window which does close on Monday. A few supporters have got in touch with us this week expressing a concern that so far a replacement for Pericard hasn't yet been brought in. What would you say to those supporters?

GA

That we are always looking to improve the team, that is what we are there to do. At the minute we know we are in a decent situation, we want to press on, we want to keep the momentum going and it is our job, Dennis (Booth) and myself to always try to improve the team, and we are constantly trying to do that.

JP

Let's talk about tomorrow then, Geraint Williams of course is a manager who as a player had a cautious sort of approach, liked to go sideways a lot rather than forwards. What do you think he is like as a manager? What do you expect from his team?

GA

Well off the back of their result at Charlton on Monday I think it will be a really tough game again. As we have found to our cost, the Stockports and the Wycombes and the Exeters and the Brentfords at home have all caused us massive problems. So we know how tough these games are and we have to get to grips with them and deal with them.

More often than not now we are doing and in our last 12 games we have got 21 points, so we are in a tremendous run of form in the league off the back of that. And we hope to go into tomorrow and get the fans behind us, go out and attack them and take the game to them more than we did in the first-half last week. And hopefully get a positive result which sees us cement our position at the moment in and around the top ten.